CBS’s ‘Mom’ Spearheads Campaign to Support Planned Parenthood

CBS’s ‘Mom’ cast and crew eschews a traditional Emmy campaign and uses that funding to fund a public support campaign for Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

BURBANK, Calif. (May 18, 2017) — The acclaimed comedy series Mom, starring Anna Faris and Allison Janney, is spearheading a donation campaign to support Planned Parenthood in response to recent partisan political efforts to target America’s leading provider of women’s health care. The U.S. Senate is currently considering legislation that would block low-income patients from going to Planned Parenthood for preventive care, like birth control and cancer screenings. Mom co-creator/executive producer Chuck Lorre and Emmy®-winning series star Janney broke the news of the initiative today, encouraging fans and concerned citizens to stand with Planned Parenthood by making donations via the ppaction.org/MOMsupport link and rallying support by using the #StandwithPP hashtag throughout social media.

“In Los Angeles County alone, we answer approximately 2,000 calls each day from people asking us for help,” says Sue Dunlap, President/CEO of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. “Across the country, millions of women and men are relying on Planned Parenthood health centers for their basic care — like birth control, life-saving cancer-screenings, and STD testing and treatment. We are committed to being here for them, no matter what. Generous support from our community fuels this work, and we are honored that the team behind Mom is launching this campaign at this critical time.”

In lieu of spending on an Emmy® For Your Consideration campaign this year, the creative team behind Mom has decided instead to launch this public support campaign and make a $250,000 donation to support Planned Parenthood and the Los Angeles affiliate. The Mom initiative furthers Janney’s longstanding support of Planned Parenthood, which her family has championed “for generations,” and continues the ongoing commitment by Lorre and Faris to healthcare-related charities and educational efforts. Lorre has been a long-standing benefactor of the Venice (Calif.) Family Clinic, where he established the Robert Levine Family Health Center in his father’s name, and Faris supports The Global Alliance to Prevent Premature and Stillbirth (GAPPS), a global effort to drastically prevent prematurity and stillbirth.

Critically acclaimed for tackling serious topics such as substance abuse, addiction, suicide and more, Mom follows single mom Christy (Faris), who’s trying to get her life back on track after years of questionable choices. Testing her daily is her mother, Bonnie (Janney), who Christy still considers the root of her troubles. They must both work to overcome their mistakes and build a better future for their family.

The New York Times has praised Mom as “…a comedy confident enough to have a serious agenda,” adding that “No series is better at mixing laugh-out-loud comedy and somber themes than Mom.” In 2016, Janney and Lorre visited the White House to join the Obama administration’s effort to reduce drug abuse, and participated in the White House Champions for Change event which honored individuals from across the country who were being recognized for their efforts to advance prevention, treatment and recovery. In 2014, the series was recognized by the Television Academy Honors, which celebrates programming that creates awareness, enlightens, educates and/or positively motivates audiences.

For the past century, Planned Parenthood has transformed women’s health and empowered millions of people worldwide to make informed health decisions, forever changing the way they live, love, learn and work. Planned Parenthood health centers serve 2.5 million people each year with essential health care, and one in five women in America has relied on Planned Parenthood at some point in her life. More than half of Planned Parenthood’s health centers are in rural and underserved communities, and without them, many patients would have nowhere else to go for care.

The American Health Care Act, which is currently being negotiated behind closed doors by an all-male team in the Senate, would prevent Medicaid recipients from accessing Planned Parenthood services.

To join the Mom campaign to support Planned Parenthood, please click here: ppaction.org/MOMsupport. For more information about Planned Parenthood, please visit www.plannedparenthood.org.

Recently renewed for its fifth season, Mom was created by Chuck Lorre, Eddie Gorodetsky and Gemma Baker. Lorre, Gorodetsky and Nick Bakay are executive producers; Baker is co-executive producer. The series is from Chuck Lorre Productions, Inc., in association with Warner Bros. Television. The all-female main ensemble cast of the show is led by Anna Faris and Allison Janney, and also includes Sadie Calvano, Mimi Kennedy, Jaime Pressly and Beth Hall. Mom airs Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.